


Heart Attack

by WhumpTown



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Hurt Giles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-27 00:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20751554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhumpTown/pseuds/WhumpTown
Summary: Giles has a heart attack and gives the scooby gang a good scare, one they weren't prepared for at all





	Heart Attack

**Author's Note:**

> I love Buffy and for some reason, I have chosen today to finally post this old thing. I wrote it forever ago and found it while cleaning out my Docs, enjoy!

She never tells Giles that Spike forced himself on her. His time away teaches her things that his presence never could and she resents him for being right. She hates the things she can't tell him, that some things she has to censor from his knowledge because he wants to protect her. He loves them all, they know and she knows it, but she's doomed to a premature death and even if she's in the middle of her twenties and it's not his job anymore… he still worries. She doesn't blame him but…

"You look…" 

Giles frowns tiredly at her, bracing himself for whatever awful thing she’s about to say about his figure. Perhaps she’ll point out the grey scruff around his chin, too many days spend not sleeping or shaving. His eyes are weak from spending so much time reading and the mug in his hand has gone cold. His hands have cramped and he’s not sure he can let go of the cup. 

Buffy frowns too, suddenly losing the edge that she always exhibits like it’s her best feature. He’s always thought her thoughtfulness, her aptitude for other’s behavior to be her best asset. In her youth, he knows she thought her beauty was all she could offer. What a silly thought-

“Giles?” His knees feel weak underneath him. His chest tight. 

“Giles!”

\--------------------

Sweat gleams across Giles' brow, a silent testimony that stands strong against his ragged, shallow breathing. If he were more aware of any of their presence he would fight to preserve his patriarchal image, a force unmoving in the waves of their lives. He can't preserve the same strength still floating in between the thin lines of consciousness.

“Giles?” 

A heart attack. The doctors explain it gently, it’s obvious they believe that Willow, Xander, and Buffy all somehow belong to Giles. She almost thinks he’d find it humorous but the swell of comfort she feels when they say ‘your father’ allows her to wistfully think he would love it. 

Xander stays in the waiting room with Dawn, his eyes full of tears as he shakes his head. _“I-I… I think I’ll just stay with Dawnie?_ His hands shake so bad he tucks them into his pants and it’s not until Buffy observes his behavior that she realizes how afraid she is too.

Giles has been the only male figure in their lives for years. The person they come to when they get broken up with, or when they’re sick, or even when even want to know how to make a certain dish. Joyce was the group mom and that was clear and no one really over thought that because she did it so naturally. She was already Buffy’s mom anyway.

Giles… well, he belongs to all of them fairly equally. 

“Do you think I should get Dawn?” 

Buffy steps farther into the room, gently touching Gile’s exposed arm. Until then her brain was certain they’d walked into the wrong room. This couldn’t be _their_ Giles. Her Giles. Yet, it is. She traces the tan line on his pinky, his ring is gone. The scars on his hands from sparring, battles, and papercuts faded and pale. It’s undeniably him.

“No,” hot tears run down her face and her eyes sting. “No, he wouldn’t want her to see him like this.” She brushes them away with her palm,” let him wake up. It’ll just scare her seeing him like this.”

And she knows it will because it scares her to see him like this. 

\--------------------

Buffy takes him home two days later. She makes Dawn go to school that day, agreeing that Willow can pick her halfway through the day. Buffy regrets that decision when Giles sleeps the whole car ride home and then imminently when they get him home. It makes the hours pass slowly and her anxiety builds as she can’t tear her eyes off his resting form.

“What are you lot doing here?” He emerges from his bedroom silently, well-rested but still not looking much like himself. He holds himself hunched, carefully as not to pull any of the muscles in his chest. He draws his left arm closer to his chest, eyebrows pinched together and breathing ragged. 

Buffy gets up from her chair, brushing by him with a soft smile, she rubs his shoulder as they pass. She almost forgets about his question, busy moving about and starting some tea. When she comes back around, again, running a hand on his shoulder, she offers a reply. “We’re just hanging around your house, except Xander. He’s convinced you hid candy from Halloween so he’s raiding your desk drawers.”

Giles looks less than pleased but as Buffy places the handful of his prescribed medication in his fist his face softens. He follows Buffy wordlessly, finding a spot to stand against the bar as she pours boiled water into a mug and drops a tea bag into it. He watches her tenderness, making his favorite tea from memory. It occurs to him that she must watch him like this more than realizes. 

“The mugs a little hot,” she waits for him to wrap both hands around the mug. It shakes, his left hand trembling uncontrolled, so she wraps her hands around it too. After a moment, the trembling subsides and he holds it steady on his own. 

“Sorry,” he takes the pills, the handfull all going in at once and timidly sipping carefully from the mug. He smiles, proud of her tea-making abilities. She used to be really, really bad. Always weak or too, too strong almost like the tea that smokers tend to make. “It’s good tea,” his praise makes her smile proudly. She takes his arm, locking the two of them at the elbow, and leading him out, a smile still perched across her lips. 

“You needn’t be here.” Sitting causes more pain than he has the strength to hide. The tight grimace across his face eases none of their anxieties. The fear of losing him isn’t something that they like to think about. He’s been on the wrong side accidents, getting banged up is a part of the job and they could handle a patch-up job. This new found fear doesn’t seem to be willing to go away so soon. 

Xander spares Buffy a glance, words he isn’t going to dare speak in front of Giles. A clear ‘he can’t kick us out, right?’ She smiles in response and it’s enough for Xander to settle back against the wall he’d been leaning on. _He_ can’t kick them out, she doubts he has the strength at the moment to put up enough of a fight to get that. However, she does and while she loves her friends she knows that all of them crowding him all day is going to stress him out instead of helping him relax. 

It’s not a problem yet.

Giles sinks into the cushion, the pillowing around his shoulder taking the strain away from his chest. It’s a relief he couldn’t find last night. His eyes slip shut but he listens while the other’s talk or rather stare mostly silent. A hand, one that’s unfamiliar, slips into his. It’s a limp grip but he suspects that if he attempts to pull away the hand would be vice-like. He’s not got the fight in him to test the theory. 

“Giles?” The couch shifts as another person sits down but he doesn’t open his eyes or even incline his head to see who it is. His answer comes on a few moments later, Buffy’s hand takes his. He’s not sure how he knows entirely but he has no doubts that it’s her. “Giles? Don’t fall asleep here, you can’t be comfortable.”

He clears his throat, sure that a sip of his tea would soothe his still aching throat but his arms have to reach so far to get to his mouth. He cracks Buffy both a smile and an open eye,” on the contrary.” He spots the person on his other side but focuses back on the task at hand. “I am neither falling asleep nor uncomfortable.”

Someone takes the cooling cup from his hands and he smiles gracefully. He finds that it’s Dawn, she’s grinning at him from his side. Dawn gives him a small laugh. His arm tingles when she squeezes his hand and he finds that feels better than the numbness that spread through it. Even the grin she gives him before tapping her shoulder lightly against his makes his chest feel light. “You did so, you even snored.” 

It was a joke, of sorts, to deem him the patriarchy. In many ways, he was the only male influence in their lives. Something that took him very little time to realize as he grew closer to them. It made their mismatched group look inappropriate but the odd looks of strangers wouldn’t keep him away from these kids-from these _adults_. Not until they don’t need him and even then some.

“I’m gonna-” Xander bounces between his left and right leg, refusing to look at a single one of them. The carpet is far more interesting. “Gonne leave, Anya and I-...” He sucks his teeth, twisting his hands and shifting nervously.

Giles looks to Anya, closely pressed into Xander’s side. He spares them a smile,” well, you both know you’re welcomed to stop by anytime. Otherwise you’ve both picked a poor time to act strangers.” They both nod and move to make a shuffled, awkward departure. “And Xander? The Halloween candy is in the cupboard, you ought to know by now where I keep it.”

He can feel Dawn shift, no doubt looking over his shoulder to the closed pantry. He smiles and taps the back of his hand against her leg,” go on. Not too much, you’ll spoil your dinner.” His eyes are already closed, his body leaned back in comfortably but he knows she smiling when she kisses his cheek and happily speedwalks to the pantry.

He slips back into a light slumber to the sound of Xander and Dawn fighting over a candy bar.

The house falls silent, every so often one of their hushed comments wakes him enough to shift his position on the couch. Buffy drapes a blanket of him, smiling when he continues snoring. He wakes up a few moments later, Buffy and Willow hunched over themselves hiding giggles behind their hands and he recognizes the weight across his chest as a familiar one. He watches them for a moment, his eyes heavy, but a smile on his lips at their youthful joy. 

“Giles?” There’s a heavy hand on his shoulder and when he draws in a deep breath there is no ache. So he blinks a few times, adjusting to the low light of the lamp to his side. He puts together what Buffy, Dawn, and Willow have done to entertain themselves in his flat. He’s almost surprised that the TV isn’t on. Then he sees Dawn on the floor, her head pillowed in her arms, and his old spellbook by her face. 

He looks up and to his surprise, it’s Willow gently smiling down at him. He glances to his side and finds Buffy curled up, another of his books open in her lap and her head rested on his other shoulder. 

Willow smiles, she’s tired too he can see it in her eyes. “It’s near midnight, figured you might actually want to sleep in your own bed.”

He looks back at Buffy, at Dawn on his floor. 

“We’ll be fine down here, Giles, take care of yourself.”

He only moves because Willow offers him her hand. It’s hard to untangle himself from Buffy but once he’s on her feet Buffy sleepily peers at the two of them and moves to take up the rest of the couch. She yawns and he does too, he wonders how after sleeping all day on his stiff couch he’s still exhausted.

“Come on.” Willow steps closer, leaning slightly into him as they move. Her head moves to his shoulder and she grips his hand tight. “Xander cried, you know?” She walks with him up the stairs afraid to let him go. “It was weird, all of us in the waiting room but you weren’t. You’re always there, always keep us together but…”

He squeezes her hand, his breath coming labored as he struggles up the small steps. Willow doesn’t allow him to take the next one, holding back. They stand on the step, inches separating them. She looks up at him, tears streaming down her face. “We can’t do this without you, Giles.”

He hums a sigh and does the only thing he can think of, he hugs her. Her tears soak through his cotton shirt quickly but he finds that he doesn’t mind. From this position, he can see over the living room a little better. Enough to see that Dawn’s got one of his shirts over a pair of shorts. Curled up in one of the blankets she deemed hers for when the girls and Xander stay over. Buffy too has stolen from his wardrobe and he wonders if Willow has done the same.

“Well,” he cups the back of her head,” I promise to stick around as long as I can. No more near-death accidents before consulting you first.”

Willow sobs out a no, pushing away so that she can look into his eyes. “No. You have to wait until we’ve had kids. Y-You have to teach them to drive and-and spoil them with treats that we tell you they shouldn’t have. You have to stick around so that we can go out and come here to find you all curled up with our kids. Like-like it’s natural like we’re a-a…”

He smiles and finishes,” a family?”

Willow blushes,” yeah.” She hides her face, looking at the ground.

He smiles and hooks his finger under her chin lifting to look back up at him. “Okay. You have my word.”

Willow nods her head, firm,” good. Now, no more funny business, get to bed mister.”

Giles offers no rebuttal because he’s completely exhausted and his chest is starting to tighten from soreness. 

She sees him to bed, standing where she thinks he can’t see her until she thinks he’s asleep. “Love you, Giles.” She halfway down the stairs when she hears a sleepy, slurred,” I love you as well Willow.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to write more Buffy fics I'm just not sure if I should


End file.
